The Canadian Style
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- - Close Punctuation
- Introduction to Punctuation
- Spacing
- The Period, Main purpose
- Imperatives, exclamations and indirect questions
- Ellipsis points
- Leaders
- Other uses
- Periods properly omitted
- The Question Mark, Main purpose
- Requests, indirect questions and other uses
- The Exclamation Mark, Main purpose
- The Exclamation Mark, Miscellaneous
- The Comma, General
- Restrictive/non-restrictive
- The Comma, Co-ordinate elements
- Clarity and emphasis
- Omitted words
- Quotations, etc.
- Names and titles
- Dates, geographical names and addresses
- Commas properly omitted
- The Semicolon, Between independent clauses
- The Semicolon, Co-ordinate elements
- Misuse and overuse
- The Colon, Between independent clauses
- Annunciatory function
- The Colon, Miscellaneous
- Misuse
- Parentheses, General
- Clarification
- Punctuation with parentheses
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- Parentheses within parentheses
- Legal documents
- Letters and numerals
- Square Brackets, General
- Use within parentheses
- Use
- Multiples
- The Em Dash, General
- Enumerations
- Interruptions, pauses, afterthoughts, clarifications and emphasis
- Summarizing
- Material in apposition
- Headings
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- Punctuation with em dash
- The En Dash, Numerals
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7.18 Quotations, etc.
Place a comma after words introducing short direct quotations, declarations and direct questions (a colon is needed to introduce longer sentences):
- A politician once remarked, "Life is short; live it up."
- I repeat, No milk today.
- Ask yourself, Can I afford this?
Note the capital letter and the absence of quotation marks in the last two examples.
If the quotation or question follows a form of the verb to be, is in apposition to a noun, or is worked naturally into the syntax of the sentence, no comma is needed:
- What he actually said was "Play it, Sam."
- Did I give a satisfactory answer to the chairperson’s question "Why are there so few women in management?"
- She asked us to "rephrase the question to make it less offensive."
It is also acceptable to omit the comma before quotations introduced by verbs of saying:
- He said "Have a nice day," fired a few shots, and ran.
The use of punctuation in quotations is discussed in 8.03 Punctuation and grammar in run-in quotations.
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